The Queen and the Monster
by Mattecat
Summary: AU; After a monster kills her, Aradia wanders as a ghost until she finds a castle with a newly-crowned queen. There, Aradia discovers the origins of the monster, and with Queen Feferi, tries to find a way to bring herself back to life. arafef
1. Chapter 1

During the night, the monster returns, despite all the precautions the villagers have taken. Normally, all that means for Aradia is that she has to stay inside at night, safe within the little shack they call home. But this time it's different. This time, when she wakes up in the morning, she goes outside to see that it has killed her sheep.

Aradia Megido looks down the remains of Ram-mom and bites her lip. She loved the sheep. She had given her the name "Ram-mom" when she was a little child, due to how it seemed to fuss over her when she played in the fields, like a second mother. Now she was dead. Eaten, judging by how little of her is left.

She picks her whip up off the ground and turns to go.

Her real mother is waiting at the door of their home, looking concerned. She reminds Aradia of a sheep, just like Ram-mom reminded her of a mother. Her black hair, soft like wool and still messy from sleep, hangs down over her shoulders and reaches to her waist. Aradia twists her own hair around her finger.

"Daughter," her mother says. Aradia walks right past her.

"Daughter," she says again while Aradia grabs her hat and a small rucksack. "Aradia. You're about to do something dangerous, I know you are. You have that look about you. What are you planning?"

"I'm going to kill the monster," Aradia says.

Her mother inhales sharply. "I didn't think it would be that dangerous. Dear, don't do something as foolish as that. At best, you'll get yourself lost in the woods, and at worst..." She trails off, unable to bring herself to say what the worst would be.

"Mom," Aradia says, "it's killing everyone's animals, and it's just going keep killing them if someone doesn't go to stop it. Someone needs to go. I can fight."

"So could Dirk," her mother says sharply. "He never came back. You can fight? I've never seen you fight. The most I've seen you do is hunt rabbits!"

Aradia pulls her hair back into a ponytail. Her mother never found out about the games she used to play with Tavros, Terezi and Vriska. They had to cover it up well, after the accident that left Tavros unable to walk, Terezi blind, and lost Vriska an eye and an arm. Aradia was injured, too, but not as badly as the others. She recovered fully. If she could live through that, she could kill the monster.

She doesn't say this. "I've hunted bigger things than rabbits," she says.

"Not a monster! Nobody even knows what it looks like, how can you hope to fight it? Aradia, don't do this to me. Not after Damara."

Aradia realizes that her mother has started to cry. It's pointless to continue talking; after what happened to her first daughter, who disappeared when she was just a baby, she would never allow Aradia to go off on her own, and especially not in search of a monster.

So Aradia hugs her and says she's sorry, she won't do anything to worry her. Her mother weeps and clutches her tightly and they hold each other for a while. Then it's time for the daily chores, and as she works, all Aradia can think of is how the monster could kill any one of them the next night, just like it did to Ram-mom. Maybe next time it would kill Mother.

That night, she takes her whip, some food, and a sword she stole from Vriska, and leaves.

The next morning, she's dead.

* * *

The sky. Clouds. The bare branches of trees, waving in the breeze. Aradia is lying on the ground, and she feels very strange.

Something is wrong.

The ground feels like it's not really there, almost like how a spider web feels against her face when she stumbles into them in the middle of the night. That thought brings back a sudden flood of memories, and she remembers: the monster.

She went out to kill the monster, but she failed. The monster killed her instead. She remembers the piercing pain through her belly, and the feeling of her guts spilling out of onto her hands. The monster had torn a hole right through her. She wonders what kind of monster it was, to have done that.

After that, she remembers nothing. All she knows is that she must be dead.

Somehow, this fails to invoke any strong emotion in her. In fact, she doesn't feel much emotion at all. She's not calm, no, just... gone. She feels gone, and she knows enough to know that this is wrong.

Aradia does the only thing that makes sense to her; she stands up and walks back through the forest to go home.

* * *

Animals don't see her. She walked right up to a deer and it didn't even notice. It was only when she touched it that it jumped up and ran. She wonders what it felt.

She's a ghost now, Aradia knows that, but she can't walk through things, not like all the ghosts of the horror stories her mother told her. Though everything feels like it would give beneath her hand with a single push, she doesn't have the strength to move anything, and a single leaf is enough to block her way. Walking hurts, too. The twigs and leaves press into her bare feet like knives against her skin, but she refuses to stop. Something is wrong with her. Why hasn't she gone to heaven? Why doesn't she feel any emotion? These are all questions that need answering, and she won't be able to answer them in the forest.

Maybe she has unfinished business. Maybe she needs to say goodbye to her mother. But she didn't appear anywhere near her body lay, and this area the forest is unfamiliar to her. It might not even be the same forest.

She finds a creek, and discovers that she can walk on water. The water is cold to touch, but it feels smooth compared to the harsh ground of the forest, if a little wobbly to walk on. Most of the stones in the creek are smooth, but sometimes, a jagged stone pokes up beneath the running water, and when she steps on one, she winces. She leave ripples, she notices; faint ones, but ripples nonetheless. She doesn't know how she should feel about that. Good, maybe?

She has to fix this. That's the only thing that keeps her going; there is something wrong with her, and it needs to be fixed. She's remembers a time when she could feel happy, angry, sad – when she could feel at all, and she wants to go back to that time.

Eventually, the creek brings her out of the forest and into a meadow. Off in the distance, she sees a stone building with tall towers, the likes of which she's never seen before. She thinks it's called a "castle".

"A castle," Aradia says out loud. She can't hear her own voice.

"Castle," she says again, louder. Still nothing. She yells, just to see if she can make any sound at all, and it comes out as a whisper. At least she can make a sound, she thinks.

There isn't any reason for her to go there. If animals can't see her, then how could people see her? But if she can talk, then other people can hear her. Maybe she can find help.

Aradia leaves the creek behind and walks out onto the meadow.


	2. Chapter 2

The Castelo do Mar is in ruins, and it has been for over a century. A castle by the sea, it had been the stronghold of the Peixes empire for years, until one queen ordered a larger and grander castle to be built. The Castelo do Mar was abandoned, and slowly fell into disrepair.

Aradia did not know any of this. All Aradia knew was that she had gone all the way across the meadow, with all the blades of grass that refused to bend under her weight and instead stabbed into her feet like thousands of tiny knives, to find a castle with nobody in it to help her. She finds a place clear of debris to sit down and rest for a bit. Her feet still sting, but the pain is fading fast. Soon she'll be able to start walking again.

Again, there is an empty feeling, like she should be feeling an emotion but isn't. If she were her normal self, what would she feel? Disappointed that she walked so far for nothing, maybe, but that seems so watered-down from the emotions she remembers. Aradia tries to feel angry, scrunching up her face and balling up her hands, but she feels nothing.

Her feet don't hurt as much anymore. She stands up to move on.

Just as she's at the castle's entry she sees someone on a horse in the distance. They're heading towards the ruined castle, so Aradia decides to stay and wait for them. This is what she wanted, right? A chance to try and talk to someone and find out if they could help her. So she stands by the wall and watches as the horse and rider come closer and closer.

When they reach the outskirts of the ruins, the rider jumps down and ties the horse to an broken old pillar. She's a girl, Aradia notices, a girl with long dark hair and copper-colored skin who looks to be around the same age as Aradia herself, carrying a golden double-pronged trident that contrasts sharply with her simple clothes. She looks familiar, but Aradia can't quite place where she's seen her before. While she's trying to remember, the girl straightens up and gives the horse a pat on the side, then walks towards the castle where Aradia waits.

"Hello," Aradia says. The girl doesn't notice. Aradia shouts it and the girl pauses and looks around. Just when Aradia thinks she's noticed her, she shrugs and walks past her.

Of course the girl wouldn't /see/ her, Aradia thinks as she follows her into the castle. She's invisible. The deer couldn't see her, so why would people?

She screams wordlessly, and the girl tenses, but doesn't stop. She speeds up, if anything. Aradia tries to keep up, but she steps on a sharp piece of rock and stumbles. The girl is already out of sight by the time she recovers, having gone around a corner.

When Aradia catches up to her, it's in a dank, round room with what looks like an old well in the center. The girl is standing next to hit, with her hands on her hips, staring down into it.

"Mom," she says harshly, and at hearing her voice Aradia remembers where she's seen her before.

A few years ago, there had been a scandal, when the then-queen's eldest daughter had ran away, leaving the kingdom sans a heiress. The Condesce, as she was called by some, was deeply ashamed, and renounced young Meenah's claim to the throne, naming her sister as the heir. She had then taken the girl on a tour around the kingdom, which included a procession through Aradia's village.

This was unmistakably the bright-eyed Princess Feferi who had waved to everyone as she passed through the village, calling out greetings to the people. But she was a princess no longer; Feferi had led a successful coup against the queen and drove her out of the kingdom, assuming the throne herself. For Aradia and her family, nothing really changed. Maybe things were different closer to the

None of this, however, explained why she is in a ruined castle talking to a well as if it was her mother.

"What are you doing?" Feferi says. "I know I haven't been feeding you as much as you're used too, but it's been enough, hasn't it? You don't have to be raising your voice!"

She sighs, and stands there, looking down into the well. Aradia wonders if there's something wrong with her.

"No, I didn't bring you anything," she says. "I just came to check on you. You know! Ugh." She folds her arms and huffs. "Don't say you didn't do anything, I heard you! First you said 'hello', and then you started screaming! What the shell - I mean hell - was that about?"

"That was me," Aradia shouts.

"That was what?"

"That was me," she repeats.

Feferi glances over her shoulder. "Okay, I know you didn't say that. Is there someone else here?" Silence. "There _is_? Why didn't you tell me sooner? No, I mean you shoald have told me right away! Who are they? What are they?"

"You could ask."

Feferi looks in her direction, and for a moment Aradia thinks that maybe she can see her, but looking at how Feferi's squinting and furrowing her brow, she knows she can't.

"I could," she says. "Okay. I know you're not dangerous, otherwise Gl'bgolyb would have warned me beforefin. So who and what are you? And don't try any tricks, because I am not in a good mood today!"

"My name is Aradia." She takes a deep breath. It's strange, how her ghost self works. She needs to breathe to speak and shout, but she can hold her breath forever if she wants to. "I'm a ghost."

"A ghost," Feferi says, and her gaze softens. "Oh. That's sad. I'm sorry for yelling at you. How did you die, if it's okay to ask?"

"I tried to kill a monster," Aradia says. "It's been eating all our animals. It killed me. I don't know why I'm still here."

"Maybe you have unfinished business," Feferi says. "Maybe if we kill the monster, your business will be completed and you'll be able to rest in peace. I will send the guard to slay it. Or, well, maybe not the guard, since they're supposed to stay and guard the castle. Glub, I'm not very good at this. I'll send someone to slay it, anyway, if Eridan lets me."

Realization shows on her face. "Wait. Eridan. Where did you die?"

Aradia hesitates for a moment. "Our village doesn't have a name," she says. "We lived at the base of Quartz Mountain, by the forest. I was in the forest when the monster attacked."

"Quartz Mountain," Feferi repeats. "Then that means…"

Feferi falls to one knee before her and bows her head. "I'm sorry," she says. "It was my fault you died. Come with me and I swear to you that I will do everything in my power to fix this."

Aradia would be surprised, if she could still feel surprise, but instead she just finds the situation implausible; the queen herself is kneeling before her. Why?

"Okay," she says.


End file.
